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 <h3 class="term">ABDICATION</h3>
 <div class="part">n.</div>
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 The word abdication derives from the Latin abdicatio. meaning to disown or renounce (from ab, away from, and dicare, to declare, to proclaim as not belonging to one). In its broadest sense abdication is the act of renouncing and resigning from any formal office, but especially from the supreme office of state. In Roman law the term was also applied to the disowning of a family member, such as the disinheriting of a son. Today the term commonly applies to monarchs, or to those who have been formally crowned. An elected or appointed official is said to resign rather than abdicate.
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 <h3 class="term">ABSOLUTE</h3>
 <div class="part">adj.</div>
 <div class="definition">
 Among the most memorable abdications of antiquity were those of Lucius Cornelius Sulla the Dictator in 79 BC, Emperor Diocletian in AD 305, and Emperor Romulus Augustulus in AD 476.
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